Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [106]
A deep sigh escaped Clayton’s lips. He had had to explain to Syntel why it was so important how they handled revealing his identity to Syneda. As best he could, he had told him about Syneda’s rejection-and-abandonment complex, and how at first she would not accept a serious relationship between them because she had associated loving a man with abandonment and rejection. He had seen fresh tears cloud the older man’s eyes when he had told him how confident Janeda Walters had been when she’d been told upon her death bed that he would be coming for his daughter and how Syneda had waited patiently for him to come for her.
“Clayton, I’m hungry.”
Syneda’s words cut into Clayton’s thoughts. He smiled at her. “Then I guess I’d better feed you. But first I need to tell you something.”
She looked up at him curiously. “What?”
“We’ve been invited somewhere this weekend.”
“Oh? Where?”
Clayton reached up and traced his knuckle across her smooth skin. “To S. T. Remington’s ranch.”
Syneda’s eyes widened. “Really? Why?”
“He wants to meet you.”
She laughed. “Why would S. T. Remington want to meet me?”
He smiled, a slow, lazy smile. “He’s eaten up with curiosity about the woman who nabbed me from the throes of bachelorhood. Trust me, he’s dying to meet you.” Dying to meet her was an understatement, Clayton thought. Syntel had been ready to fly to New York and claim his daughter.
“Well, what about it, baby?”
Syneda leaned up and kissed him. “I had relished the idea of spending this weekend here alone with you. But if you want us to go, I will. Is anyone else going to be there?”
“Yes. Senator Lansing will be there, too. They’ve been best friends since college.”
Syneda nodded. “Then I’ll finally get the opportunity to meet the senator. I never did meet him at Whispering Pines.”
“Now you’ll have your chance.”
Syneda snuggled closer to Clayton. “Hmm, sounds like it will be a rather interesting weekend.”
Clayton pulled her to him. “Yeah, I have a feeling that it will be.”
“How did things go with S. T. Remington?” Braxter asked as he entered the senator’s office.
Senator Lansing sighed raggedly, pushing his chair back from his desk. “No different than I expected. Syntel loved Jan very much and to discover he had a child he didn’t know anything about because of the deceit of his father was a lot for him to take in.”
Braxter nodded. “I’m sure it was. Has Ms. Walters been told anything yet?”
“No. Clayton strongly suggested we wait until the weekend. He’s taking her to Syntel’s ranch then.”
“I hope things turn out all right. In their own way, both of them have suffered enough.”
“I fully agree.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do about Senator Harris?”
“Yes. I’m not going to do anything. He didn’t get the report, and nothing has happened.”
“But he tried to ruin you.”
“And no doubt he’ll probably try again. I can’t go around worrying about people like him, Braxter. All I can do is continue to do the job I was sent here to do. I don’t have time to play games like Senator Harris is inclined to do.”
“So you’re going to let him get away with it?”
“Thanks to Celeste Rogers, he didn’t get away with anything.”
“Yes, thanks to Celeste Rogers,” Braxter said bitterly.
“Have you seen her since that night she brought the report here?”
“No, and I don’t intend to, either.”
“She apologized for what she’d done.”
“How can you forgive someone who has betrayed you? Someone who deliberately used you?”
A few seconds followed before the senator answered. “It can be done, Braxter, but you have to want to do it. None of us are perfect. All of us have flaws, and we all make mistakes. We don’t know why she did what she did initially. The only thing we do know is that in the end, because of you, she couldn’t go through with it. Forgiving someone is never easy. It takes a big person to say I’m sorry, but it takes an even bigger person to say I accept your apology and you’re forgiven.